How to Barbecue like a Pro

Monday

Can't make it to your favorite barbecue joint? Here's how to get that great taste at home.

Newport County’s barbecue experts are happy to share their tips with home cooks. But first, they want to clear up a common misconception: barbecuing is not the same thing as grilling.

“Most people in the Northeast say they are having a barbecue, and they are really just grilling some hamburgers and hot dogs,” says Mark Bryson, owner of Binge BBQ in Newport. “There is nothing wrong with this; it’s just using the word barbecue as a social event, not a cooking technique.

Grilling is cooking “where the food is directly over the heat,” he continues. “Barbecued food is cooked with a wood fire using indirect heat, and flavored with smoke from the wood fire [typically] in a separate chamber.”

At Binge, Bryson pulls inspiration from New York, the Carolinas and Texas, but has created his own style of barbecue altogether to cater to the clients of Newport. “You have to evolve,” he says.

When cooking brisket or hosting large events, Bryson uses a Texas-style smoker that his dad made. It features a firebox, a cooking chamber for the food, and a smokestack to create a draw for the smoke to travel through from the firebox. “Obviously, I am most proud of the offset smoker my dad built for me, and wish I could use it every day because it cooks the best,” he says.

For everything else, he uses a vertical smoker made by J&R Manufacturing out of Mesquite, Texas, and uses oak logs from Simply Local Wood in Tiverton.

No matter the style, there are some important points that translate to any kind of barbecue one might be interested in making.

Never use a soft wood like pine, only hardwoods like oak, maple or hickory.
Try to maintain an even temperature throughout the cooking process.
Wrap briskets in butcher paper once they develop the bark you’re looking for and to help with the final stage of cooking. (Brisket should be 194–198 degrees when done.)
Wrap ribs in foil and add a little bit of sauce once they have a good, deep, reddish color on the outside.
Use a digital thermometer like a Thermapen.
Don’t keep opening the smoker every 15 minutes.
Rest the meat in an empty cooler for at least 45 minutes after cooking to let the meat rest and retain its juices.
Experiment with rubs, sauces, marinades, cooking temps and times until you like the results.

At Becky’s BBQ in Middletown, owner Bob Bringhurst uses a barbecue smoker with rotating shelves. The meat on the upper shelves drips juices onto the meat on the lower trays as the shelves rotate — plus it helps it cook evenly, he says.

“The key is to keep the temperature [below] 225. Once it gets too hot, it affects collagen and affects texture,” he says.

The slow cooking causes the connective tissues of the meat to tenderize and dissolve, he explains. The smoking process creates a reddish color around the outside of the meat, referred to as the “smoke ring.” That’s how you know it’s done right.

Bringhurst, who graduated from Portsmouth High School, learned to barbecue while he was living in Huntsville, Alabama. He befriended a third-generation owner at the renowned Gibson’s Bar-B-Q and learned the techniques, which he brought back to Rhode Island with him.

Down there, he says, “barbecue” is always referring to pulled pork. “When it’s a noun, it means pulled pork. As a verb, you can barbecue some ribs or barbecue some chicken — but if you want to get some barbecue, it means pulled pork.”

Bringhurst provided some hacks for home chefs who don’t have a smoker — starting with the meat they choose. Look for picnic cuts or pork shoulder for pulled pork, as they’re among the cheapest of the cuts, he says. As far as ribs, “I would get St. Louis cut ribs or back ribs,” he says. “Back ribs are easy to cook. They come off the top of the rib.”

Bringhurst recommends marinating your meat overnight, just like he does, using a dry marinade. His recipe is sacred, however, so he wasn’t willing to share. “You always want some kind of sugar, or brown sugar,” he says. “You’re always going to have some salt, and usually you’ll have some type of pepper of cayenne.” (See sidebar for one suggested recipe.)

Home barbecuers without a smoker can use their own charcoal or gas grills by adding smoking chips inside. If the grill has a smoker box, drop them directly in there. Separate smoker boxes can be purchased and put directly on top of the grill grates. While you may not get quite the same results Bringhurst gets from his pit at Becky’s, or from a professional smoker with a firebox, it will come pretty close, he says.

Soak some smoking chips in water for a few hours before adding them to your grill on a low heat, and leave your meat there for around 2–4 hours. There’s only so much smoking you can do to a piece of meat, he explains. After a couple of hours it won’t take on more of that flavor, and at that point you can continue to cook it in your oven.

“The main thing — the key — on the pork shoulders and ribs is to make sure you let the internal temperature get to the point where it dissolves the connective tissue, so it’s tender,” Bringhurst says.

A sentiment from Bryson wraps it up perfectly. When it comes to barbecue, “don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Just learn from them.”

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